I’d heard so much buzz about Legends & Lattes being a “cozy fantasy” that felt like a warm hug, so I went in expecting something lighthearted and comforting—a break from epic battles and dark quests. The concept of an orc giving up adventuring to start a coffee shop definitely piqued my curiosity.
📖 What It’s About (Spoiler-Free)
Viv, a battle-weary orc, hangs up her sword and decides to open a coffee shop in a city where no one even knows what coffee is. Along the way, she gathers an unlikely group of friends—each with their own quirks—who help bring her dream to life. It’s not about saving kingdoms or fighting monsters, but about building community and finding a new purpose.
🖋️ Writing & Style
The writing is simple, accessible, and deliberately low-stakes. Baldree has a knack for painting warm, cozy settings that make you want to curl up with a latte while you read. That said, the straightforward style sometimes felt a bit too plain, and I occasionally wished for more depth in the descriptions or conflicts.
👤 Characters / Key Ideas
Viv: A refreshing protagonist—an orc who isn’t out for blood, but for peace and fulfillment.
Cal, Thimble, and other supporting characters add charm and heart.
At its core, the book is about reinvention, community, and small joys, which is a nice change of pace from high-stakes fantasy.
💡 Highlights & Favorite Moments
Watching Viv learn the ups and downs of running a business was surprisingly relatable.
Thimble’s pastries? Honestly, the descriptions made me crave baked goods.
The found-family dynamic was sweet, especially how the characters rallied around each other.
🤔 What Could Be Better
While the coziness is the book’s strength, it’s also its weakness at times. The plot moves at a very gentle pace—so gentle that I occasionally found myself wishing for more tension or surprises. Some characters could have used more layers, and the conflicts wrapped up a little too neatly.
🎯 Final Verdict
Legends & Lattes is a charming, low-stakes story that offers a warm escape from darker fantasy tropes. If you’re looking for action, high drama, or complex worldbuilding, this probably won’t hit the mark. But if you want something cozy, comforting, and a little different, it’s worth a try.
📌 Verdict: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (3/5)
💬 Let’s Discuss!
Have you readLegends & Lattesyet? Did you find it cozy and heartwarming, or did you crave a bit more action? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
Goodreads’ Synopsis: The alliance between ants and dinosaurs created a veritable Age of Wonder! But such magnificent industry comes at a price – a price paid first by Earth’s biosphere, and then by all those dependent on it. A satirical fable and ecological warning.
A satirical fable, a political allegory and an ecological warning from the author of The Three-Body Problem. In a sunlit clearing in central Gondwana, on an otherwise ordinary day in the late Cretaceous, the seeds of Earth’s first and greatest civilization were sown in the grisly aftermath of a Tyrannosaurus’ lunch.
Throughout the universe, intelligence is a rare and fragile commodity – a fleeting glimmer in the long night of cosmic history. That Earth should harbour not just one but two intelligent species at the same time, defies the odds. That these species, so unalike – and yet so complementary – should forge an alliance that kindled a civilization defies logic. But time is endless and everything comes to pass eventually…
The alliance between ants and dinosaurs, was of course, based on dentistry. Yet from such humble beginnings came writing, mathematics, computers, fusion, antimatter and even space travel – a veritable Age of Wonder! But such magnificent industry comes at a price – a price paid first by Earth’s biosphere, and then by all those dependent on it.
And yet the Dinosaurs refused to heed the Ants’ warning of impending ecological collapse, leaving the Ant Federation facing a single dilemma: destroy the dinosaurs, destroy a civilization… or perish alongside them?
Read Start Date: March 31, 2024
Read Finish Date: April 5, 2024
My Review: Millions of years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, there were two intelligent species — ants and dinosaurs. One day, as a dinosaur tried unsuccessfully to clean food from his teeth, the ants realized something. They could perform the task and acquire food for the colony simultaneously. Thus, the symbiotic relationship between ants and dinosaurs began, igniting the evolution of the species that would otherwise not have been possible. Ants became not only dentists but also doctors, scribes, etc. The ants would perform any task the dinosaurs could not perform with clumsy, large fingers. The ants acquired knowledge and food in exchange, and both species flourished.
This close cooperation was not without its issues, though, especially when dinosaurs flourished so much that their numbers threatened the Earth’s very existence. I don’t want to give too much away from the plot, so I will just say that I liked the unique idea of an intelligent civilization of ants co-existing and developing technology with dinosaurs. I had no negative feelings about this book and did not mind that the characters were merely ancillary to the story itself. From the synopsis, this book is supposed to be a political allegory, but honestly, I didn’t even notice/pay any attention.
This novella is a quick and easy read. It covers a vast amount of time without getting bogged down in excessive detail — it is different from the Three Body Problem series in that way. So, if you enjoy Cixin Liu’s writing and imagination, I would highly recommend this book.
Goodreads’ Synopsis: When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn’t always what we seek.
In Bookshops & Bonedust, a prequel to Legends & Lattes, New York Times bestselling author Travis Baldree takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books.
Viv’s career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned.
Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to return to it.
What’s a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?
Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn’t possibly imagine.
Still, adventure isn’t all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.
Read Start Date: April 1, 2024
Read Finish Date: April 8, 2024
My Review: I borrowed this audiobook from the library as it was on top of the “popular” list. I knew nothing about it, nor did I even read the synopsis before reading (as is mostly the case when I check books out this way). The characters are fantasy creatures such as Orcs, Elves, etc., but I felt the author could have easily just transferred the characters to humans, which would have made no difference. I never really felt how each species was different i.e., how their species made them unique or what attributes it gave them (other than being big in Viv’s case) or what the characters looked like.
Essentially, the story is about an Orc who works as a mercenary. She is injured and must convalesce until her mercenary group returns from their next mission. While looking around the town, she finds a bookshop and becomes friends with the owner, Fern, a “Ratkin” (which I assume is some giant rat?). Fern says swear words a lot, which fell flat if it was supposed to lend a funny air to the book.
While this book was imaginative and entertaining to listen to, I struggled to identify what this book was trying to be. It was definitely not your typical fantasy book. I couldn’t help making parallels to the book I read a while back called The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan (see my review here). Bookshops & Bonedust felt more like a feel-good story about saving a struggling bookstore than a fantasy adventure. I should note here, however, that a subplot does involve a necromancer.
Unfortunately, although Goodreads identifies this book as a “romance,” and there is a romance subplot, I didn’t feel it. There was no heat, no fire. I just didn’t feel the connection between Viv and her romantic interest.
In conclusion, my experience with Bookshops & Bonedust was mixed. I recommend this book to readers interested in narratives that blend fantasy elements with everyday life. However, readers seeking intense romance or action-packed adventures may want more from the book. Ultimately, Bookshops & Bonedust offers a charming escape for those who appreciate whimsical storytelling and are open to blended genres.
Goodreads’ Synopsis: A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong
Amanda and Clay head to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they’ve rented for the week. But with a late-night knock on the door, the spell is broken. Ruth and G. H., an older couple who claim to own the home, have arrived there in a panic. These strangers say that a sudden power outage has swept the city, and – with nowhere else to turn – they have come to the country in search of shelter.
But with the TV and internet down, and no phone service, the facts are unknowable. Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple – and vice versa? What has happened back in New York? Is the holiday home, isolated from civilisation, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one another?
Read Start Date: February 18, 2024
Read Finish Date: March 31, 2024
My Review: I first learned about this novel when I watched the film adaptation on Netflix. The movie was eerie and strange, and I knew I just had to read the book.
The novel begins with Amanda and Clay, a middle-class white couple from Brooklyn, who take their teenage children on a trip to a luxurious rental home in a remote area in the Hamptons (Long Island, New York). However, their vacation takes a dramatic turn when the house’s owners, an older Black couple named Ruth and G. H., unexpectedly return, claiming that there is a blackout in New York City and that it’s not safe to stay there.
In their isolation–no one else around–the families can almost pretend everything is fine. Then a loud, strange noise cracks the windows. The television and cell phone services don’t work, and they are cut off from everything and everyone. If that wasn’t enough, hundreds of deer are migrating. A loud noise rends the air, shattering glass. There is no news. No one knows what is happening. Sprinkled in with this tense situation, the author provides snippets of information about what is occurring in the larger world, known only to the reader, which adds to the suspense.
The book is well written. Some characters are more developed than others, and the adults (especially Amanda and Clay) are each flawed in their own way. Amanda is a bit of a racist, while Clay is a bit of a weakling. They all seem to stick their head in the sand (which can get annoying in a crisis situation). The story moves slowly. Nothing really happens. The tension is drawn out and never comes to a head. This novel has no ending, leaving the reader to guess the fate of the characters.
While I enjoyed it overall, I admit that I was waiting for the more dramatic moments of the movie to take place in the book. They never occurred. Not that it changed my thoughts on the book overall, but a forewarning if you’re like me and have seen the movie already and are thinking of reading the book.
All the above being said, I think that this book would be a perfect choice for readers who enjoy psychological thrillers that explore human behavior under pressure and leave room for interpretation. If you’re looking for a fast-paced, action-packed read, this is not it. But for those who appreciate a slow-burning mystery with a focus on character dynamics, I would definitely recommend it.
Goodreads’ Synopsis: With The Three-Body Problem, English-speaking readers got their first chance to experience the multiple-award-winning and bestselling Three-Body Trilogy by China’s most beloved science fiction author, Cixin Liu. Three-Body was released to great acclaim including coverage in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. It was also named a finalist for the Nebula Award, making it the first translated novel to be nominated for a major SF award since Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities in 1976.
Now this epic trilogy concludes with Death’s End. Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But the peace has also made humanity complacent.
Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the early 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings with her knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?
My Review:Death’s End, the final book in Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, picks up where the second book, The Dark Forest, left off. Decades after the Wallfacer project exposed humanity’s vulnerabilities to the Trisolaran fleet, a precarious peace reigns. The “Dark Forest” doctrine—every civilization is a hunter in a cosmic jungle—keeps the Trisolarans at bay, but tensions simmer. Earth thrives under a technological boom fueled by Trisolaran knowledge but with the constant threat of invasion looming. But this is only the beginning of the story.
I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, so I will just say that the novel explores the evolution of human society and technology over thousands of years as humanity confronts the challenges posed by the Trisolarans and other cosmic forces. The narrative spans vast distances and periods, from the distant reaches of space to the inner workings of subatomic particles. Readers encounter different dimensions, space cities, new civilizations, and humanity’s last hope.
This book is an epic saga in and of itself, at over 700 pages. Cheng Xin is a central character introduced in the third novel. She is a scientist from the 21st century who becomes a key figure in humanity’s response to the Trisolaran threat, and not to put it lightly, in humanity’s destiny. Like the other novels in this series, the pacing is somewhat slow and delves into scientific concepts too advanced for this reader. Whether science fiction or humanity’s science future, I cannot say. Nevertheless, I found it intriguing and awe-inspiring and…just wow. This series is phenomenal and should be on everyone’s reading list.
Although I am sad that I have finished this wonderful series, I found 3 other books written by the same author at the library, so my journey is not over yet! Stay tuned for more from Cixin Liu!
Other Books In the Series:
See my review of The Three-Body Problem by clicking here.
See my review of The Dark Forest by clicking here.
Goodreads Monday is hosted by Budget Tales Book Blog. “Goodreads Monday allows you to post about what books are on your “to read” lists, the progress you have made on your current books and reading challenge, and any other Goodreads news!”
Rabbitlike aliens from outer space colonize Earth during humankind’s Second World War in a delightfully funny and thought-provoking science fiction adventure The Quozl just need somewhere to call home. A gentle race of extraterrestrial rabbits, they have a propensity for reproduction that has left their home planet, Quozlene, dangerously overpopulated, and in their search for greener and less-crowded pastures, they have discovered the perfect place to start the third planet away from a healthy, warming sun. What they don’t realize is that this world they call Shiraz is already inhabited by a species of violent sentient creatures known as humans. But there’s no going back now. In the midst of the brutal and helpfully distracting global conflict the Shirazians call World War II, the colony ship lands undetected, and the space rabbits immediately go into hiding. But a secret like the Quozl can be concealed for only so long, especially when their numbers start to increase and certain rebellious members of the long-eared society decide the time is ripe to claim their place in a world they believe is rightfully theirs. One of the most admired and prolific authors in the science fiction arena, Alan Dean Foster will delight readers who hunger for something different with this funny, thoughtful, and wildly inventive novel of first contact and coexistence. Once you meet the Quozl, you will never forget them.
On a cold winter night, a passenger jet with 189 aboard crash landed, out of fuel, in a suburban neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. Ten people died. The pilot was blamed and stripped of his career, and a sweeping transformation of flight-crew training took place that made United Flight 173 (in)famous worldwide as the model for failure and change. That was only the half of it.
Hiding in plain sight for years in an attorney’s file boxes, the forgotten truths of the landmark air disaster reveal much more: an emotional journey tethered to the disgraced pilot and a three-year-old girl who survived the crash and became an unlikely hero for justice and public safety in the dramatic legal battle that followed.
Crash Course, by award-winning journalist Julie Whipple, is the long-overdue, true story of a misunderstood airline tragedy that changed more about our daily lives than most people know. Here is why we’re safer today, how we’re not, and what we can do about it.
With The Three-Body Problem, English-speaking readers got their first chance to read China’s most beloved science fiction author, Cixin Liu. The Three-Body Problem was released to great acclaim, including coverage in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal and reading list picks by Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg. It also won the Hugo and Nebula Awards, making it the first translated novel to win a major SF award.
Now, this epic trilogy concludes with Death’s End. Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But the peace has also made humanity complacent.
Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the early twenty-first century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings with her knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?
Karl Edward Wagner (1945-1994) has earned a reputation as one of the finest horror writers of the modern era, but his work has been out of print and nearly unobtainable for many years. His seminal volume In a Lonely Place collects eight of his best tales, including “In the Pines,” a classic ghost story evocatively set in the Tennessee woods, “Beyond Any Measure,” an original take on the vampire story, “River of Night’s Dreaming,” a surreal and nightmarish masterpiece inspired by The King in Yellow, and the author’s most famous tale, “Sticks,” a disturbing story thought by many to have been the basis for The Blair Witch Project. This new edition includes all the stories from the original 1983 edition, plus an additional rare tale and the author’s afterword from the Scream/Press limited edition, and features a new introduction by Ramsey Campbell.
Given the fact that there are perhaps 400 billion stars in our Galaxy alone, and perhaps 400 billion galaxies in the Universe, it stands to reason that somewhere out there, in the 14-billion-year-old cosmos, there is or once was a civilization at least as advanced as our own. The sheer enormity of the numbers almost demands that we accept the truth of this hypothesis. Why, then, have we encountered no evidence, no messages, no artifacts of these extraterrestrials? In this second, significantly revised and expanded edition of his widely popular book, Webb discusses in detail the (for now!) 75 most cogent and intriguing solutions to Fermi’s famous paradox: If the numbers strongly point to the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, why have we found no evidence of them?
Progress: page 176 of 434. (Jan 6, 155, Jan 15, 164, Jan 29, 171, Feb 5, 176)
Writing a book is hard. Marketing it can be even harder.
Marketing a book in 2021 can seem like a full-time job, what with the crazy number of things authors seem to be expected to do: social media, blog tours, advertising, price promotions, mailing lists, giveaways, you name it.
But here’s a little secret: you don’t need to do all those things to successfully set your book on the path to success. What you need is a solid plan to find the one or two tactics that will work, and start to drive sales… in a minimum amount of time. And that’s exactly what you’ll find in this book.
Instead of drowning you in information or inundating you with hundreds of different tactics and strategies that eventually prove fruitless, this book will guide you through a step-by-step framework to find the ones that actually work for you and your book, so that you can start marketing more efficiently.
In particular, you’ll learn:
• How to change your mindset and sell more books with less effort.; • How to write books that guarantee a lasting, profitable career; • How to get Amazon’s Kindle Store to market your book for you; • How to get thousands of readers into your mailing list before you even release the book; • How to propel your book to the top of the charts at launch; and • How to automate your marketing so that you can spend less time marketing and more time writing,
After helping over 150,000 authors crack the marketing code through a popular weekly newsletter, Reedsy’s Co-founder Ricardo Fayet is sharing everything he’s learned over the past few years in this beginner-friendly, jargon-free guide to book marketing.
A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong
Amanda and Clay head to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they’ve rented for the week. But with a late-night knock on the door, the spell is broken. Ruth and G. H., an older couple who claim to own the home, have arrived there in a panic. These strangers say that a sudden power outage has swept the city, and – with nowhere else to turn – they have come to the country in search of shelter.
But with the TV and internet down, and no phone service, the facts are unknowable. Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple – and vice versa? What has happened back in New York? Is the holiday home, isolated from civilisation, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one another?
“She took the record out and put it on. As it started to play, she simply didn’t know if good memories would come back. Maybe bad memories would overtake them. Whichever way she felt, she just knew that it was ‘absolutely necessary’ to purely have it play.”
Elsie Ragusin started out in life with everything laid out. She was passionate about God, music, and her family. However, life would soon test her in the most unimaginable ways. She would realize that during the worst atrocities that human history has ever witnessed, she had to rely completely on her Christian faith to get by. Some days, she never ate or felt too weak to work in the concentration camps. Her mental strength in using music and the hope of getting back to her family helped her get through it in 1945. Yet, those haunting memories are what she still has to overcome. Will she use the talents that God has given her to show her present family that one can truly overcome anything? Listen and follow along with Elsie’s Tune.
From an award-winning journalist, this “grippingly suspenseful true-crime tale details the foiling of a wealthy Texan’s plot to have his wife murdered”(Publishers Weekly).
To the world, Linda DeSilva’s marriage to Robert Edelman was perfect. He was her college boyfriend turned wealthy and successful husband, and the father of her children. But what friends and family didn’t know was that the Texas real estate tycoon who set her up with a luxurious life in Dallas was also her abuser. When she asked him for a divorce, the violence against her only escalated, until the shocking moment she learned her husband had hired an assassin to take her life.
From acclaimed journalist and author Jim Schutze, “My Husband’s Trying to Kill Me!” is the riveting true-crime account of how Linda DeSilva worked with the FBI to trap her husband before he could act on his murderous intentions—and how the sting operation nearly got her killed instead. A shocking and sensational story of a wife and mother’s escape from the marriage that went from American dream to every woman’s worst nightmare.
Progress: Audiobook 39%
Book I Will Read:
Title: Of Ants and Dinosaurs
Author: Cixin Liu
Published: 2003
Pages: 256
Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Novella
Goodreads Synopsis: The alliance between ants and dinosaurs created a veritable Age of Wonder! But such magnificent industry comes at a price – a price paid first by Earth’s biosphere, and then by all those dependent on it. A satirical fable and ecological warning.
A satirical fable, a political allegory and an ecological warning from the author of The Three-Body Problem. In a sunlit clearing in central Gondwana, on an otherwise ordinary day in the late Cretaceous, the seeds of Earth’s first and greatest civilization were sown in the grisly aftermath of a Tyrannosaurus’ lunch.
Throughout the universe, intelligence is a rare and fragile commodity – a fleeting glimmer in the long night of cosmic history. That Earth should harbour not just one but two intelligent species at the same time, defies the odds. That these species, so unalike – and yet so complementary – should forge an alliance that kindled a civilization defies logic. But time is endless and everything comes to pass eventually…
The alliance between ants and dinosaurs, was of course, based on dentistry. Yet from such humble beginnings came writing, mathematics, computers, fusion, antimatter and even space travel – a veritable Age of Wonder! But such magnificent industry comes at a price – a price paid first by Earth’s biosphere, and then by all those dependent on it.
And yet the Dinosaurs refused to heed the Ants’ warning of impending ecological collapse, leaving the Ant Federation facing a single dilemma: destroy the dinosaurs, destroy a civilization… or perish alongside them?
Genre: Fiction, Horror, Short Stories, Gothic, Anthologies
Read Start Date: February 2, 2024
Read Finish Date: March 19, 2024
Goodreads’ Synopsis: One of the most important horror collections of modern times, back in print at last!
Karl Edward Wagner (1945-1994) has earned a reputation as one of the finest horror writers of the modern era, but his work has been out of print and nearly unobtainable for many years. His seminal volume In a Lonely Place collects eight of his best tales, including “In the Pines,” a classic ghost story evocatively set in the Tennessee woods, “Beyond Any Measure,” an original take on the vampire story, “River of Night’s Dreaming,” a surreal and nightmarish masterpiece inspired by The King in Yellow, and the author’s most famous tale, “Sticks,” a disturbing story thought by many to have been the basis for The Blair Witch Project. This new edition includes all the stories from the original 1983 edition, plus an additional rare tale and the author’s afterword from the Scream/Press limited edition, and features a new introduction by Ramsey Campbell.
My Review:
The Pines: Reeling from the death of their only son, a married couple, Gerry and Janet, rent an old cabin nestled in the forest. They want to get away from life. To rest. To recover. Gerry, angry and depressed, drinks a little too much, and in his drunken haze, he begins to experience strange things. While I liked this story, I can’t say I loved it. It felt too short. The tension didn’t have time to build. The mystery was summarily explained rather than unfolded layer by layer.
Where the Summer Ends: Mercer is a collector of antiques and often shops at the dilapidated home of Mr. Gradie. He’s been buttering the old man up to part with a wood mantle at an affordable price that would go great in his apartment. This is what the story is about on the surface. Underlying this seemingly mundane transaction is the fast growth of the invasive kudzu plant and the mutilation of homeless men around town. The tension of this 28-page story grows as steadily as the kudzu. The twist at the end was unexpected and brought the story to an end in a dramatic fashion.
Sticks: In the spring of 1942, artist and illustrator Colin Leverett–he had just been drafted to fight in WWII–went fishing in Mann Brook, New York. Walking to the river, he came across a dilapidated house and several “lashed-together framework of sticks,” reminding him of a “bizarre crucifix.” He put pen to paper and began to draw several of the most intricately put-together stick formations. Several decades later, Leverett struggles to make a living, his artwork becoming too dark after his experiences in WWII for mainstream consumption. One day, he gets a call from a publisher interested in his dark style. Compelled to use the sticks as part of the illustrations, Leverett sets in motion a dangerous path that he cannot escape.
The Fourth Seal: The protagonist was hired as a medical doctor at a new institution. He is a cancer researcher and makes a breakthrough discovery. Just when he thinks he will have the opportunity to change the world, he is thrown a curveball that threatens not only his perspective but also his life. This story was interesting and had an unexpected twist at the end.
More Sinned Against: Candi Thorne was an aspiring actress in L.A. until she met actor hopeful Richards Justin. Introduced to drugs, Candi is forced into a downward spiral of acting in porn films, and when her looks fade due to drug use, prostitution to feed her habit — and to maintain the lazy and lecherous Richards. She does it all for love and on the promise that Richards will support her when he makes it big in Hollywood. She believes that investing in his future is also an investment in hers. It was no surprise to this reader that Richards was not faithful to his word. As I read this story, I felt bad for Candi, and sometimes I wanted to scream at her and tell her to WAKE UP to his obvious treachery. The ending, therefore, although unexpected, was highly welcome.
.220 Swift: Dr. Kendall is an archeologist in search of the mines of the ancients, built by the Spanish conquistadors in 1540. I was very interested in the story at the beginning. The mystery surrounding the hills captivated my attention. However, as the story moved along, it took an odd and unexpected turn. I wasn’t a fan of this twist, as it seemed too far removed from the original story. There were just certain elements that were introduced that I didn’t care for.
The River of Nights Dreaming: If I had to describe this story in one word, it would be confusion. The main character, Cassilda, was involved in a bus crash and swam to the opposite shore of the lake where the bus had sunk. Evidently, she was in prison for an unknown offense, and this was her chance to escape. They would think she had died in the crash and she could live a life of freedom. When she emerged from the water, a shadowy animal pursued her, and she sought refuge in the home of an elderly woman and her companion. Then the story really got strange–the women are not what they first appear to be. I did not understand the ending and found this one altogether weird and confusing, and it was not one of my favorites.
Beyond Any Measure: Lisette is an American girl attending school in London. She has been having realistic nightmares and, on the urging of her lover, Danielle, goes to see a hypnotherapist who theorizes that reincarnation is real. He believes that Lisette’s dreams are in fact memories of her past life. The twist at the end of this story has intrigued me and I’ve been thinking about it since I finished this story. Not a bad way to end an anthology!
First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday! Hosted by Socrates Book Reviews this is where you share the first paragraph of one of the books that you are currently reading.
“Well, the sun was shining. They felt that boded well–people turn any old thing into an omen. It was all just to say no clouds were to be seen. The sun where the sun always was. The sun persistent and indifferent.”
Goodreads’ Synopsis: Guaranteed to help parents reclaim sweet dreams for their entire family New from the bestselling author of the classic baby sleep guide! Getting babies to sleep through the night is one thing; getting willful toddlers and energetic preschoolers to sleep is another problem altogether. Written to help sleep-deprived parents of children ages one to five, The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers offers loving solutions to help this active age-group get the rest they–and their parents–so desperately need. A follow-up to Elizabeth Pantley’s megahit The No-Cry Sleep Solution , this breakthrough guide is written in Pantley’s trademark gentle, child-centered style. Parents will discover a wellspring of positive approaches to help their children get to bed, stay in bed, and sleep all night, without having to resort to punishments or other negative and ineffective measures. The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers tackles many common nighttime obstacles.
Read Start Date: December 26, 2023
Read Finish Date: January 29, 2024
My Review: My daughter is 2 years old and has never been a good sleeper. We have tried everything, but nothing seems to work. I bought this book from Amazon, as it came up in one of my Google searches. I thought it sounded like a good book to read. I only gave it 3 stars because while well written, thoughtful, and informative, I didn’t really find anything in the book that I hadn’t already known from Google. That being said, it was nice to have all the information in one place for simplicity.
Additionally, the suggestions in the book seemed to worsen the situation (e.g., white noise and telling stories at bedtime) rather than improve the situation. My daughter became more stimulated, not more relaxed. So the opposite of the intended result was achieved. I’m sure the book is great when you have a normal sleeper who just needs a little bit more of a routine. When you have a child such as mine, however, I didn’t find it helpful, or I should say, any more helpful than free Google searches.
I don’t know whether the author is a doctor or what her education is in (e.g. whether she has studied sleeping, child development, etc.). However, it seems that she has written lots of books on “No-cry” solutions for everything from naptime to potty training. She does mention a few signs of sleep disorders in children (not sure where she gets this information from) and recommends to seek professional help if your child exhibits any of these symptoms.
In conclusion, I think that this book is good if you have a child who is capable of sleeping normally, but you want to get into a better routine. Then this book will give you some helpful tips as to how to make that happen.
The Legal Alien 